For one week now, South Australia and Victoria have been hit by a record-breaking heatwave. Almost everyday has had a high of over 40°C. However, this is only part of it – almost every night we have suffered with minimum temperatures of at least 30°C, with one night breaking the previous minimum recorded for January of over 35°C.

While my friends in the UK have expressed jealousy over these temperatures, especially as they are facing more snow and ice this last week, I would have to say, reluctantly, that they don’t really know what they’re on about.

I’ve been cold – I’ve been so cold my toes have gone black. But cold is easy to deal with – your body is a heat generator, and all you have to do is insulate yourself from the cold, and you are quite happy.

There’s not much you can do when it is hot – there are only so many layers you can take off.

Perhaps the worse thing about it all isn’t the fact that it is hot – it is the night-time minimums. There is no chance for anything to cool down again overnight – the brick walls of houses can’t radiate the heat that they have stored through the day, there’s no cooling breeze to drift through open windows as you sleep, and when you grab your shirt for work and it is still baking warm from the previous day, you know something isn’t quite right.

Buckled Rails near Adelaide - Taken from Adelaide Now (click for larger image)

All this is making for some incredible difficult times for transport and utilities providers – tracks are buckling as the steel expands, and transformers, which are already overloaded by the fact that everyone is running air-conditioning and fans, are struggling to dissipate the heat that is an unfortunate by-product of dropping voltages.

It looks like we’ve got about another week of this, according to the weather agency, but we’re starting to get more breezes through, which are helping.

Hopefully, I can stick it out a bit longer – the portable air-conditioner I bought the other night is helping a lot.

One thing that might be a plus – I should be sweating the fat out of myself in this weather.

New Year’s Resolutions haven’t really ever been my thing – I tend to just review and set new objectives whenever I feel like a stretch or a change of direction.

And, in all honesty, these aren’t really new year’s resolutions again – that’s mostly just a coincidence. The timing is more down to the fact that I’ve had most of a month for some reflection.

So, I have some new goals in life:

Lose weight

My more recent attempts to lose weight have been somewhat less enthusiastic than half-hearted, meaning that I’ve been settled at 120-125kg for a while now.

My aim is to make it all the way down to 90kg as soon as possible. Thankfully, my family are all joining in on losing weight (although, they don’t have as far to go). We’re actually putting into a kitty, and the person who loses the most in a month gets the kitty.

Part of losing weight is diet – which I’ve got planned and sorted. And part of it is activity – so rejoining the gym, and getting up and using it is another goal.

Take more photos and publish them more often

There is something going on somewhere all the time – and my aim is to get my camera out to these events and take pictures as much as possible – and then publish them here on the website.

See more of the country

Obviously, this will help me take more photos, and give me more to write about.

I already have a trip to Melbourne being planned for the end February – I’m going to take the train down there, and fly back. Eventually, I’d like to take the train from Adelaide out in all directions (Melbourne, Perth, Darwin, Sydney) – just to say I’ve done it.

Get a car

And this will help me see more of South Australia – I have no idea what I want, and I keep swinging between a VW Camper (mobile kitchen and bedroom), a station wagon (better roadhandling – plus enough room to sleep in it), or a Mini Cooper (just as a style thing).

I’ll probably end up getting some ten-year old station.

So, that’s what I’ve set myself as goals for the next few months – I’m looking forward to it.